Your Pre-Summer Josh Childress Update

Childress can opt out of his contract with Olympiacos after this season but would be a restricted free agent with Atlanta. Or he can sign a qualifying offer from the Hawks for one year and become a free agent in 2011 or sign a longer deal with the Hawks if they offer one. Childress also can sign an offer sheet with another team, but Atlanta can match it. Or he can return to Greece for the final year of his contract.

He has until July 15 to let Olympiacos know his decision.

"It's going to come down to getting information quickly and weighing my options and making a quick decision," Childress said.

The 26-year-old said he wasn't leaning either way. But hypothetically, "I'd be leaning towards finishing my contract here because I signed a three-year deal," he said.

I have no idea what they want or expect from Woodson. They brought him back after four pretty terrible coaching years and have appeared to string him along through two far more successful years as head coach.

I do think that the playoffs will determine whether or not re-signing one or both would be a positive or negative PR move for the organization. I think the very public show of interest in Ilgauskas from an organization that typically doesn't announce whether they give restricted free agents qualifying offers shows that they're fairly concerned about appearing* to compete. Ultimately, the decisions on Johnson and Woodson may not entirely be informed by basketball concerns.

Childress might not come back for the qualifying offer, but if he felt JJ was going to walk and he could step in as the starting 2, I believe he'd come back. I feel like a big part of his problem was that an inferior Marvin (at the time) was starting ahead of him and getting more minutes.

There might be a new feeling of mutual benefit between Childress and the Hawks should Johnson leave. 1 year of Childress at $4 million would be great for the team (given the cap issues) and the clear path to unrestricted free agency might cause Childress to change his mind about playing for this franchise.

Well it might not be ideal by any means but Childress would likely start but Jamal would carry the bulk of the minutes.

It would transition this team to more of one that Woody alluded to in the interview he did before the Philly game as one with out a superstar but a team that was capable of attacking you from different angles.

I am not saying I am for it, just saying that it could be a less expensive option if in fact Childress were interested and could coexist with Woodson

The better option would be letting Marvin go and using some of that money towards Childress. Getting a true center. Moving Horford to pf and Smith to sf w/Childress as his back up. I know that's not going to happen, but Childress imo is not an NBA starter at any position. Maybe sf, but that's pushing it. He's a great 7th, 8th man and energy/hustle guy, but that's about where it stops.

I cringe at the thought of Smith being moved to SF in just about any situation.

Marvin isn't going anywhere due to that extension that he signed this past summer.

I tend to agree with you on Childress as I loved his energy but was never in love with him as a player. However, if Joe were to leave then I think this would be an option because the Hawks would be using all of their assets so to speak. Childress wouldn't consider the idea unless he was almost assured a starting spot IMO.

Yeah, Smith at sf is not ideal because his jump shot is garbage. With that said replacing Marvin with him would be a major upgrade. I forgot Marvin signed the extension though. Still I think this creates a problem. Do you limit Horford by keeping him at center and keeping Smith or do you trade either Smith or Horford at some point. Neither is going to accept a bench role if we ever get a real center.

I agree and nor should either of them. In the meantime you have to leave Horford at Center. Down the road those are tough questions to answer that I am sure will be discussed at length if not by the team at least in the blogosphere.